We're live, so we're just waiting for... Welcome back. We continue our conversations here from the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos. I'm Shereen Bhan. The focus here on CNBC-TV18 has really been to bring you global leaders to give you a perspective of how they see 2026 and beyond. Not just from the point of view of the global economy, but also more importantly from the perspective of India. Joining us now is a man who has a pulse check on both the global economy as well as their plans for India. Benoit Bazin, the chairman and CEO of Saint-Gobain. Many, many thanks for joining us on CNBC-TV18. Appreciate your time. Let me start by asking you, Benoit, what you make of the global economy and how that's likely to play out for your company in the next 12 months.
Saint-Gobain, our strategy is to be the worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction. We have big trends everywhere. Urbanization in emerging economies, in India, fast growth, and also the housing crisis that we need to solve in Europe and in the US. So, everywhere we have big needs for housing, but also commercial buildings and infrastructure. So, all mega trends are there. On top of that, you have of course the climate adaptation, the climate change, the resilience of buildings and infrastructure. So, it's all about the solutions of Saint-Gobain, the strategy of Saint-Gobain that we implement locally. We are organized by country, so our leader in India covers all the lines of Saint-Gobain. It is very powerful because in the deglobalized world of today, you need to be flexible, you need to be agile, and you need to be deeply local. This is the golden rule of Saint-Gobain with a lot of mega trends that support our growth strategy.
Well, you know, you talked about India and I'll get to that in just a bit, but the mega trends that you speak of that will be supportive of growth in an uncertain climate, what would you point those out to be?
Well, it's basically the needs of people in the buildings. We spend 90% of our time within buildings, at home, at work, in a school, in a hospital. So, we need to pay more attention to buildings. Sustainable construction, it is just better buildings. So, this is the way we deal with that within Saint-Gobain. You could have a storm in the US, you need to replace your roof with a better roof. You need to work on energy efficiency in Europe, and you need to cope with population growth in fast-developing countries like in Asia, like in Indonesia. So, first, the number one criteria of growth is the population growth. You take a country like Egypt, 27 new cities will be built in the next 30 years. We are there on the ground with an Egyptian CEO ready to develop all these.
Well, you know, speaking about your local strategy, let's address the India market and how that's playing out for you and more importantly, what your future plans are for India given the fact that it's an economy growing at over 7%.
India has been a fantastic journey for Saint-Gobain for more than three decades. You know that we are number one in every single of our product line. The strategy of Saint-Gobain is all around the building envelope. You know, the glazing, the ceilings, the partition, the floor, providing air quality, thermal performance, good well-being, productivity on the job site, including on infrastructure. So, we have 82 plants in India, close to 2 billion euros. We have been basically doubling our size in sales every 5 years, times four in the last 10 years. And we keep investing not only on capex with new plants, but also on acquisitions. We bought Fosroc last year, which is the leader on what we call construction chemicals. It's all good for infrastructure. The Bangalore metro is done with our waterproofing solutions. We have a lot of admixtures to decarbonize concrete. So, we are investing a lot in India, capex, acquisitions, and also R&D. Innovation is at the center of Saint-Gobain's strategy. We have more than 400 researchers in Chennai. So, we are working on all those fronts, including sustainability. I'm very proud that Saint-Gobain participated in 70%, 7-0, of the sustainable buildings in India. All these being managed by fantastic teams out of India. Our India manager has been there more than 30 years with the group. So, I think we provide a fantastic journey also to attract the best talents. We have been nominated again the best top employer in India. So, that's the fantastic journey, and I'm very confident about the next 10 years. It will be the decade of India. Why is that? Because in India you have the scale, you have the growth of the population, and you have also the transformation of construction. What means new cities, what means new airports. I think you are going to build more than 300 airports in the next decade, highways. So, infrastructure, housing, aspiration from the middle class to have good quality housing. So, a lot of transformation, growth, and scale. So, all these checked with a fantastic growth and good profitability in India because our teams are very, very strong and capable.
Well, you know, as you said that if you believe that this is going to be India's decade, what is that going to mean in terms of incremental capex for you? You said that the business has been doubling in India every 5 years. So, will things accelerate even further?
It will continue to accelerate, and we think big. You know, when we buy a piece of land in India, we think that all the capex we can put for the next 10 years. We just bought last year a big land southeast of Chennai on top of already the world-class complex that we have in Chennai. So, yes, we think big in terms of acquisitions, capex, accelerating on that, and also talents because you need to prepare the talents for the future, and this is the way we make sure that we have the best teams in India. You know, of course, the brand recognition of Saint-Gobain in India is second to none. It's a very, very strong brand recognition. So, all this is good investment for the future of Saint-Gobain in India and for the future of the country.
So, acquisitions, you said that that is going to continue to be part of the India growth strategy for you. You talked about the one that you just did. Anything in specific, any areas in specific that you would be focused on?
Well, it's all of the building envelope and infrastructure projects. For instance, we bought last year Megachem, it's a company dedicated to high-performance waterproofing. 4 years ago, we bought some insulation, stone wool, glass wool, to improve the efficiency on energy from housing to industry. One interesting point of India for us in the last 2-3 years that we are going to use India to export more. For instance, we built, as we speak, capabilities to export to Southeast Asia, to export to Australia. So, not only it is a lot of production for the domestic market, but more recently, we have seen India as a very good base to export. We are saying that, of course, we have our own IT teams. We have close to 2,000 very capable talents to provide on the global scale the manufacturing 4.0, all the new digital solutions for Saint-Gobain around the planet. So, it's a true leadership that we have also in this space in India.
